Ask Me Tomorrow

by

Mojave 3

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This is Mojave 3's first album, or more accurately the first album from Neil Halstead and company since they recorded Pygmalion under the name Slowdive. As such, the songs on this album provide an interesting transition between their Slowdive work and their later Mojave 3 work. The songs are kind of folksy, and there is an emphasis on accoustic instruments, but there is still some of the old ethereal droning sounds left over from their Slowdive wall-of-sound days.

The songs themselves are all beautiful, relaxing, bittersweet masterpieces with sugary vocals and poetic lyrics. Some clear (or apparent) influences on this album include Leonard Cohen and the Cowboy Junkies. In fact, many of the songs sound like a duet between Cohen and Margo Timmins. However, the songs are still clearly Halstead's. This album is easily as strong as Excuses for Travellers although it has a more overall melancholy tone to it.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting ASK ME TOMORROW, the first album by ex-Slowdive members reformed as Mojave 3, to be very good. Slowdive's shoegazing stylings worked so well because of the rich layers of electric guitar, which gave some exotic flange and buried the vocals so deep that they worked only as pure tones, not letting us hear what might be trite lyrics. By 1996 Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell chose to move towards an acoustic singer-songwriter sound, which I've not often found worthwhile. But while ASK ME TOMORROW isn't a great album, it is surprisingly entertaining. Halstead and Goswell either alternate on vocals from track to track, or double the vocals, so there's the nice variety one knows from Slowdive albums. The band has retained an ethereal edge to their sound, disguising the fact that at hear this is a couple of guitars playing simple chord progressions. And while none of the song texts here are particularly insightful, "Candle Song 3" and "Sarah" do manage to be moving.

Nothing here makes me want to continue on to later Mojave 3 efforts. I agree with the reviewer on Pitchfork Media who wrote, "Of course, at the end of the day, Mojave 3, while an appealing band, aren't so appealing that owning more than one of their albums is at all necessary." Still, I don't regret acquiring this album and find it nice listening for rainy days and candlelit nights at home.